Kiefer Sutherland assures us that he has no intention of quitting hit real-time drama 24 any time soon, despite seven long years (or should that be days?) of protecting the president.

In an exclusive interview with Entertainmentwise, Kiefer - who plays tireless CTU agent Jack Bauer - insists he has left any initial doubts he had about revisiting the character year upon year far behind.

He says, “One of the great fears that I had is you sign a contract, it used to be minimum of five years and then it became a minimum of seven.

“You start thinking 'OK, I’m 33 years old and I won’t be finished with this until I’m 40'.

“So I’m sitting there thinking, ‘what’s it going to be like to have to play the same character over that long a period of time?’

“It wasn’t until the second or third year that I thought to myself ‘what an arrogant thing to say...because it’s not the same character – every year informs the next year.

"When I first started playing him he had a wife and a daughter, by the time I started playing him the next year, the character had changed, just like a human being changes over time."

And the former brat packer is confident that the upcoming season of the hit show will be the best so far, despite having to work around last year's writers' strike.

“Disappointing as the writer’s strike was, it allowed us to make what I believe is the best season of 24 we’ve ever made, which I’m very excited about," he says.

Be sure you check back for our full interview with Kiefer, coming soon.